


Free will

by TheMusicalCC



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Commitment, Conversations, Dorks in Love, Drabble, F/M, fluff but just with talking?, they barely even touch each other so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 01:53:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12002472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMusicalCC/pseuds/TheMusicalCC
Summary: “I guess what I am trying to say is...” she takes a breath and rushes out, as though struggling otherwise “You don't have to be a swordsman anymore”Doing something because you want to and doing someting because you have to are very different concepts. Zelda knows that. She's not sure Link does, though.





	Free will

“You did quite a lot of stuff during this adventure, it seems” Zelda says before she takes a sip of the vegetable stew he made for lunch and closes her eyes in bliss for a moment “Oh, goddess, I keep forgetting how good your cooking is” Link wishes he didn't feel so elated with the comment. She eats eagerly- he can't quite remember if she was always like that or she's just sating one-hundred years of hunger- and seems to enjoy her meal so much that Link ends up giving her his share with a smile, quieting her mild protests by grabbing some rice balls from his inventory for himself.

The sun is beginning to decline and Tarry town is tinged with a warm light that gives it an even more peaceful and welcoming air- Link still likes Hateno better, but he thinks he wouldn't mind living here either. It feels like home too, somehow. It surprises him a little to realize most towns do, and it worries him as well. Makes him think he might not really belong anywhere. Makes him wonder if the same happens to Zelda, despite the fact that it doesn't look that way to him. It might be just her diplomatic disposition, though; every place they visit greets her as though forgetting that a long time has passed since she was Princess of anything. The Kingdom took the return of the Princess of legend surprisingly well, all things considered. Link had a feeling they wouldn't have if they hadn't seen the Calamity disappear from Hyrule Castle or, in some cases, Ganon himself wrecking havoc in the fields.

By the time she speaks again, he's all but forgotten her comment already, but it comes back with a blare of alarm at the sound of her tone: A very familiar sadness.

“You did a lot and you excelled on it all too” he looks at her with a furrowed brow that makes her add in a hurry “I don't mean anything bad by it, of course!”

“I know you don't” he mutters with a slight shrug, and motions for her to continue.

“You did mining, and lumberjacking...trading and errands and taming horses and...well. You were good at it all”

“Um...thanks?” he shrugs again, not sure where this is going but knowing she doesn't like it when he can't take a compliment. Zelda rubs the side of her face pensively before speaking again.

“You could easily run an inn if you wanted. Your cooking is- well, I know I already said this but it's delicious”

“Uh-huh”

“I guess what I am trying to say is...” she takes a breath and rushes out, as though struggling otherwise “You don't have to be a swordsman anymore”

He blinks. Truthfully, he hasn't thought of himself as a swordsman in a while. What _is_ he? Someone who goes around helping. Is there a name for that? His silence seems to unnerve her, as she continues, her nervousness palpable. It gives him the feeling that she's saying something she doesn't want to.

“In the past- and until very recently, you were required to take a sword and fight, whether you liked it or not- it was for the sake of this Kingdom and...and mine, I guess” she isn't meeting his eyes. It's irking as it is unusual “But with- with Ganon gone and his forces weakening...” she drifts off. He has the unpleasant notion that she'd been about to say ' _You are no longer needed_ ', which in any case isn't quite true. What few armed forces they have gathered in the course of the past weeks can do nicely against small groups of monsters, but he isn't sure they could handle something bigger “You earned the right to chose what you do with your life from now on” she pins her eyes on him, finally. He has to wonder what kind of expression he's making because when she continues, her tone is impatient “Listen, you can do anything you like from now on! You could be...a sailor, or a farmer! No one should expect any more from you than you've done already! And- and whatever you decide, will be fine, because you're good at _everything_ you do!”

Link can't think of anything to say so he simply rubs his nape, before reaching out for her dish to pick it up. She slaps his hand away softly and does it herself, huffing as she gets to her feet.

“You don't have to take care of me anymore if you don't want to”

“But, I want to” he replies almost without thinking. In the silence that stretches between them the following seconds, Zelda's face shifts from surprised to touched, and then her eyes crinkle like she wants to cry.

“Have you thought of it properly?” she asks in a hiss, frozen to the spot. Link gets to his feet as well and leans slightly over the table to make sure she looks at him. He wants to say that he worked too hard to see her smile again and has no intention of missing said sight. He wants to explain how he'd paid for the Hateno house and all of it's improvements with the thought of her living there with him neatly tucked in the back of his mind, how he'd captured the white horse with whole intention of giving it to her once she was safe. How recovering his memories had made him long for more time with her.

He's never been good with words, though.

“What is there to think?” is what he says instead. She makes a small, exasperated noise, and then leans over the table to look at him in the eye.

“Everything! You have a whole life ahead of you and freedom to do whatever you want with it”

“Hasn't it been that way always?”

“I don't know!” she breathes and continues, her tone calmer “No one asked you if you _wanted_ to be the Hylian Champion, a hundred years ago, it just- it just happened. We needed you, so you did it, but that's not the case anymore”

“You mean _I_ am not needed anymore” he says. Zelda cringes and an awful thought crosses his mind "Do you want me to leave you?"

Her brow knits, as though the thought itself hurts her beyond words. 

"No, Link! But-" she breathes in, trying to regain calm “You...you earned the right to live a life where you aren't burdened by the expectations of others. You can live according to your own expectations”

“But I _am_ living by my own expectations” she purses her mouth and he chuckles tensely “Is it really that hard to believe that I am doing exactly what I want to do?”

“I got you killed once” she mutters. _Oh_. He reaches for her hand over the table and rubs the back of her hand with his thumb, letting the silence stretch between them. He hears thunder in the distance and makes a note to keep the horses in the Inn's stable for the night. When she speaks again, she's much calmer “I tell myself it's not fair to think like that, but it still pops up sometimes, you know. I just want to be sure that you have...considered things. Considered everything you could be doing, everything you want to do, before deciding if you want to stay by my side through these journeys now that you have no obligation anymore”

He still holds her hand. The temptation to bow down and kiss the cold fingers between his is overwhelming.

“I am not the kind of person to do something if I don't want to” he replies “I may not remember everything, but I do remember that. I stay out of my free will”

He waits for her reply. Crickets chirp around them and the wind is picking up. Rain is coming.

“Then, is there nothing you want to do?" she asks. She seems happy despite herself "Something that you crave for apart from our current duties?”

He considers it.

“I'd like to go shield-surfing to Hebra again” he says finally and she finally laughs. His smile is bashful and fresh and he feels tension seeping away from them “I'd like to take you too, if that's alright with you”

It's her who brings his knuckles to her lips.

“That sounds lovely”

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, finished BoTW yesterday and this had been in my mind, so I wrote it. A lot of us assume he wordlessly followed Zelda in her mission to restore Hyrule and I find the fact that she'd just go with it without questions kind of hard to believe.


End file.
